Vikings strength coach Evan Marcus first to get hands on players

It's mid-April, but the chill made it feel like mid-November on Tuesday at Winter Park, and the sight of Vikings veterans, newcomers and prospects running drills had football in the air again.

The second week of Minnesota's voluntary offseason workout program is more about strength training and new teammates assimilating than implementing new coach Mike Zimmer's schemes. The collective bargaining agreement forbids Zimmer and his coordinators, Norv Turner and George Edwards, from participating this early.

Evan Marcus, the strength and conditioning coach hired away from the University of Virginia, is running the show. His mission: to make the Vikings stronger and more nimble.

How barbells translate into more victories for a team that finished 5-10-1 in 2013 remains to be seen. For now, it's about changing how the Vikings prepare and compete.

"Our goal is to become more explosive -- to become a bigger, faster, stronger team -- and this is the way to do it," said tight end Kyle Rudolph. "It's definitely taking a little bit of getting used to. ... (but) if we can be a more explosive team, not only is that good for the weight room, but that translates onto the field.

For returning players, it was about adjusting to the new workout regimen, leaving the Leslie Frazier era behind and officially flipping the calendar to 2014.

"It's really a mentality, just buying in and just putting this new stuff that we're doing to work," Greenway said. "It's been a short time. We haven't really done anything, practice-wise. Everybody's in here working, and guys check their ego pretty much at the door and are just ready to work. It's been a good start for us."

For cornerback Captain Munnerlyn, a free agent signed away from Carolina, the program is about introducing himself.

Munnerlyn played both right and left corner for the Panthers, returning four interceptions for touchdowns the past two seasons. He is only 5-feet-8 but plays feisty and physical. He figures to inherit the starting job of Chris Cook, a second-round bust who failed to record an interception in four seasons in Minnesota.

"I always call myself the 'big difference.' When I'm on the field, I'm the big difference," Munnerlyn said. "I can make a whole lot of plays in this defense. Start outside and then slide in to play the nickel back; that's what I'm going to do -- bring the physical toughness to this secondary and go out there and get my hands on some balls and take them to the house."

Munnerlyn has a chaperone in the locker room. He roomed at South Carolina with linebacker Jasper Brinkley, who returned to Minnesota as a free agent after an unproductive season with the Arizona Cardinals.

"We've been through a lot together -- sweat, blood, tears, injuries," Brinkley said. "It's like having one of your brothers with you."

Heading into the draft next month, Brinkley is competing with Audie Cole to start at middle linebacker after the Vikings jettisoned the troubled Erin Henderson.

After starting 15 games for Minnesota in 2012, Brinkley signed a two-year deal with the Cardinals but was waived after starting just three games.

"It's all about proving yourself," he said. "I don't think one guy is going to be penciled in right now. It's a new coaching staff. Everybody has to prove themselves."

Rudolph is expected to thrive under Turner, whose tight-end friendly schemes made stars out of Jay Novacek in Dallas and Antonio Gates in San Diego. The 2012 Pro Bowl most valuable player fully recovered in February from a broken foot that prematurely ended his 2013 season in Week 9.

"Obviously, everyone knows the success that Coach Turner has had with tight ends," Rudolph said. "I hope to fall in line with that. I'm excited to get into this offense."

Marcus served three years as head strength and conditioning coach for the Miami Dolphins before joining the staff at Virginia. He also spent 2007 in the role for the Atlanta Falcons.

The Union, N.J., native said the Vikings returned from their brief offseason in good shape and eager to make an impression on the new regime.

"There's accountability because if you're not a good worker, you're going to get called out in a group," Marcus said. "We're trying to build accountability, teamwork, guys working together to build an energetic environment."

Samuda injured

Reserve guard Josh Samuda suffered a serious ankle injury during a blocking drill in the fieldhouse and had to be carried off the field by teammates. A Pioneer Press photograph showed a gruesome image of Samuda's right ankle bending inward as he fell to the turf.

The Vikings did not provide an update on his injury.

Samuda, 25, was signed to a reserve/future's contract in January, meaning he had to work himself on to the active roster.

The 6-3, 310-pound lineman went undrafted out of the University of Massachusetts in 2012. He played 16 games that year with the Dolphins but was waived before the start of the 2013 season.

Briefly

The Vikings signed former Iowa tight end Allen Reisner, who spent part of the 2012 season on their practice squad. Reisner played the final week of the 2012 season and the entire 2013 season with the Jacksonville Jaguars, starting three games.